Down Under Gun Control + More – Daily Digest

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“In disquisitions of every kind there are certain primary truths, or first principles, upon which all subsequent reasoning must depend.” –Alexander Hamilton, Federalist No. 31, 1788

TOP 5 RIGHT HOOKS

Down Under Gun Control

Following the latest high-profile shootings, Barack Obama told America it needs to do some “soul searching” on gun control. We’re pretty sure he wasn’t directing that message to the bleeding-heart leftists salivating to ban all manner of guns in America. No, Obama thinks Liberty lovers “should be ashamed” for not allowing even the “mildest restrictions.” But Obama gave a clue as to what he really wants when he went on to praise the gun control laws Australia passed in 1996. “A couple of decades ago,” Obama said, “Australia had a mass shooting, similar to Columbine or Newtown. And Australia just said, ‘Well, that’s it, we’re not doing – we’re not seeing that again,’ and basically imposed very severe, tough gun laws, and they haven’t had a mass shooting since.” If you remember, Australia rounded up all the semi-automatic guns in the country, threw them on the scrap heap and destroyed them. If that is Obama’s definition of a civilized society, he is wrong. Gun confiscation in America won’t work out well for statists. This nation was founded on the idea that a self-governing people have the God-given right to defend themselves – not only from a low-life criminal but from the whip of tyranny.More…

Clinton ‘Restored America’s Leadership’

What were Hillary Clinton’s accomplishments as secretary of state? Cleaning up after George W. Bush, of course! “The most important thing I did was to help restore America’s leadership in the world,” Clinton explained with a straight face. “And I think that was a very important accomplishment. We were flat on our back when I walked in there the first time. We were viewed as being untrustworthy, as violating our moral rules and values, as being economically hobbled. And we had to get out there and once again promote American values and pursue our interests and protect national security. Because of the eight years that preceded us – it was the economic collapse, it was two wars, it was the War on Terror that led to some very unfortunate, un-American actions being taken. That was my biggest challenge.” As a senator, she voted for the war, by the way. But if she thinks the Obama administration has re-established American credibility and leadership with a “reset” button here and a troop withdrawal there, she is sorely mistaken.More…

Al-Qaida Overruns Mosul

“[T]he American combat mission in Iraq has ended,” Barack Obama triumphantly proclaimed from the Oval Office in August 2010. “Operation Iraqi Freedom is over, and the Iraqi people now have lead responsibility for the security of their country.” How’s Obama’s cut-and-run strategy working out? “Insurgents seized control early Tuesday of most of the northern Iraqi city of Mosul, including the provincial government headquarters, offering a powerful demonstration of the mounting threat posed by extremists to Iraq’s teetering stability,” reports The Washington Post. American-trained Iraqi security forces reportedly dropped the weapons and fled, and al-Qaida now controls virtually the entire northern province of Ninevah. According to Robert Ford, Obama’s former ambassador to Syria, the resurgence of al-Qaida in Iraq is fueled by cells out of Syria: “These al-Qaida offshoots … now pose a potential threat to our security,” he said. “These extremists enjoy a sanctuary from which they may mount attacks against Europe or the United States.” Obama really has worked to ensure that America’s incredible sacrifice in Iraq was for nothing.More…

‘Sensitivity’ Training for Baker

In December, Colorado-based bakery owner Jack Phillips was ordered by Administrative Law Judge Robert N. Spencer to provide cakes to homosexual couples for their same-sex ceremonies despite Phillips’ Christian convictions. Phillips appealed the ruling to no avail. He will now be forced to attend “sensitivity” training (i.e., re-education camp) and provide “progress” reports, meaning the Colorado Civil Rights Commission will oversee all of Masterpiece Cake Shop’s business activities. Alliance Defending Freedom’s Nicolle Martin explains, “So if his shop is closed or he’s out of flour, he needs to report to the commission.” According to ACLU attorney Amanda Goad, “[R]eligious freedom is undoubtedly an important American value … [but] so is the right to be treated equally under the law free from discrimination.” We wonder if Ms. Goad would have the same response if the real victim here – Jack Phillips – were Muslim instead.More…

A Blow to Teachers Unions

And the California teachers unions bite the dust. The judge for Los Angeles Superior Court, Rolf Treu, found California’s laws governing the hiring, firing and awarding tenure to teachers unconstitutional under California’s constitution. The ruling may lead to more lawsuits in other states. “The evidence is compelling,”Treu wrote. “Indeed, it shocks the conscience.” The decision said between 1% and 3%, or 2,750 to 8,250, of California teachers are “grossly ineffective” and the laws keep them in school, affecting their students for a long time. Of course, the leaders of the teachers unions are whining. Dennis Van Roekel, president of the National Education Association, said the decision will “make it harder to attract and retain quality teachers and ignores all research that shows experience is a key factor in effective teaching.” Blah, blah, blah – respect is earned, not given. A young, hardworking teacher will do more to help his or her students than an old burnout.More…

RIGHT ANALYSIS

Tea Party’s Historic Upset Ousts Cantor

In a historic and surprising upset, Republican House Majority Leader Eric Cantor of Virginia lost his seat Tuesday in a primary against little-known and underfunded Tea Party challenger David Brat. Cantor spent $5 million on a House seat he thought was endowed. In a quintessentially American underdog story, Brat, an economics and ethics professor at Randolph-Macon College in Ashland, came from nowhere, spent $122,000, had virtually no national support – and won in a high-turnout, 56-44 landslide. In other words, reports of the true grassroots Tea Party’s demise are greatly exaggerated.

In South Carolina, Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham handily won his primary against a divided field. Even before primary day, he crowed that beating the Tea Party is “[m]ore fun than any time I’ve been in politics.” He added, “People are really saying, ‘OK, enough already.’ They’re starting to push back from trying to define conservatism in a fashion where there is no room for solving problems.” Evidently the people of Virginia disagreed with that assessment and decided it was time for solving a problem.

Cantor’s loss is a critical warning to the GOP establishment and leadership, particularly on immigration, which was a key issue in the campaign. With Cantor’s defeat, the prevailing wisdom is that “comprehensive” reform is now dead for the year.

Then again, conventional wisdom was also that the Tea Party was dead.

Immigration reform is ahot topic, and Cantor and the GOP leadership seem a bit too eager to team up with Democrats for some form of path to citizenship for illegal aliens. Though Cantor boasted in campaign mailers of blocking a Senate effort “to give illegal aliens amnesty,”National Journal reports, “In an interview just last Friday, Cantor suggested he could work with President Obama to allow a path to citizenship for some children of illegal immigrants already in the country.” Voters took notice of his inconsistent messaging, and his loss is a rebuke to Republicans who don’t stick to a measured, step-by-step approach. We’ll see if they heed the message.

It’s important to note that Brat also won on his unflinching opposition to ObamaCare. That’s not as sexy a play as immigration, but it was a major campaign theme for him.

Cantor was seen as next in line to become speaker. Now that he’s not returning to Congress, however, it will spark a competitive battle to replace him in the GOP leadership. Majority Whip Kevin McCarthy of California, the third-ranking Republican, isn’t exactly a Tea Party darling, perhaps opening the field a bit.

Though by all appearances Cantor lost on immigration, he really lost on the assumption that he could not lose. It’s the establishment versus grassroots mindset. The message from voters, however, was clear: Elected representatives should not take for granted those who elect them. Or send them home.

Brat appears to be a capable, articulate candidate, well versed in the free market and public policy. As he put it after his victory, “[T]he problem with the Republican principles is that nobody follows them.” And if Cantor does not now immediately throw his support behind Brat – and those underlying principles – then he really ispart of the problem, not the solution.

The Invasion of Alien Children

The scenes resemble prison camps except that the faces behind the wire fences are children. In ragged clothes, with unwashed faces they look out at America. They sleep on plastic boards, eat tasteless food and stand outdoors in the heat for days, waiting. They are the products of the Obama administration’s illegal alien busing program.

OPINION IN BRIEF

Humorist Ambrose Bierce (1842-1914): “An election is nothing more than the advanced auction of stolen goods.”

Columnist Michelle Malkin: “[I]llegal alien amnesties guarantee two things: more illegal immigration and more Democratic voters. Now we have a White House forcing U.S. military bases to provide interminable benefits and services to illegal aliens for political gain, while said White House evades responsibility for allowing military veterans to die waiting for the most basic of medical services. And where’s the GOP ‘leadership’ in this country? Doing the bidding of the amnesty-loving U.S. Chamber of Commerce and demonizing Republican candidates at every level who are sick and tired of giving away the store and the country. God save us from bipartisanship.”

Columnist Burt Prelutsky: “[W]hile nine million American vets have to make do with 267,000 VA employees – not nearly all of whom are medical professionals – 150 Muslim terrorists at Gitmo have 100 doctors and nurses at their beck and call. It begs the question: What sort of people are we that we treat the creeps trying to kill us better than we treat the men and women who risked their lives and lost their limbs trying to defend us?”

Comedian Conan O’Brien: “In a new interview, Hillary Clinton said that she and her husband were dead broke when they left the White House. Hillary said things were so bad the two of them had to share a bedroom.”

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